The race for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially began in February 2023 in Doha, Qatar, with the Volleyball World Elite16. The 2024 season began last week, back in Doha, and the final event of the Olympic qualification cycle will be the Ostrava Elite16, which ends on June 9. We’ll be providing these updates for the Beach Volleyball Olympic rankings throughout the next two years.
Last weekend’s Recife Challenge was a weekend for the dark horses, the underdogs, the pairs making late and urgent pushes up through the Olympic rankings. None more so than Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley, the Canadian pair who came together in the middle of last summer, with Bukovec scrambling for a new partner and Bansley coming out of retirement to be that partner. In a stunner of a start to the 2024 season, Bukovec and Bansley began the tournament in the qualifier and ran it all the way to the finals, where they took silver, falling in the finals to Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, who all but punched their ticket to Paris two weeks ago at the Doha Elite16. With their 760-point, Bukovec and Bansley jumped from No. 42 to 35, narrowing the gap to Canada’s No. 2, Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain.
For the men, Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, with their fourth-place finish, reduced their deficit to USA No. 2 Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner to just 340 points. Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk also gained on Brunner and Crabb with a fifth and are down 880 to Brunner and Crabb.
The next Olympic qualifying event is a Challenge in Saquarema, Brazil that starts with a qualifier Thursday.
Women’s Beach Volleyball Olympic Rankings
(updated March 25 after the Recife Challenge)
- Duda Lisboa, Ana Patricia Silva, BRAZIL, 11820 (11)
- Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth, USA, 10860 (12)
- Carolina Salgado, Barbara Seixas, BRAZIL, 10200 (12)
- Kelly Cheng, Sara Hughes, USA, 10040 (11)
- Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson, CANADA, 8860 (10)
- Raisa Schoon, Katja Stam, NETHERLANDS, 8840 (12)
- Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova, LATVIA, 8560 (12)
- Xinyi Xia, Chen Xue, CHINA, 8200 (12)
- Valentina Gottardi, Marta Menegatti, ITALY, 8200 (12)
- Victoria Lopes, Taina Silva, BRAZIL, 7720 (12)
- Agatha, Rebecca, BRAZIL, 7320 (12)
- Mariafe Artacho, Taliqua Clancy, AUSTRALIA, 7310 (10)
- Nina Brunner, Tanja Huberli, SWITZERLAND, 7100 (9)
- Anouk Verge-Depre, Joana Mader, SWITZERLAND, 7000 (12)
- Esmee Bobner, Zoe Verge-Depre, SWITZERLAND, 6960…
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